Community Grants

Of community, by community, for community

For decades, community groups and nonprofit organizations throughout the Northwest have worked to advance equity and justice for LGBTQ+ communities in every corner of our region. Our Community Grants Program helps fuel this work through providing consistent, long-term funding.   

Since this program’s inception in 1987, we have awarded over $12 million dollars. Our most recent award cycle in 2021 was the largest in Pride Foundation’s history—$2,751,000 to 105 incredible organizations over three years. 

In 2021, we shifted to a proactive grantmaking model for this program, and began awarding funds without an application process. These programmatic changes were intentional shifts to center racial justice in our work, improve the experience of grantee partners, and align our grantmaking with our organizational priorities to move resources to LGBTQ+ communities most impacted by injustice. 

In 2024, we will have both a proactive grantmaking model and open application to ensure that all organizations have the space and opportunity to receive funding.

The Community Grants Program application closed October 11, 2024.

Are you working to support youth in Washington state?

Your organization may be eligible for a Washington Youth Initiative grant.
Washington Youth Initiative

Eligibility:  

Organizations must meet the following criteria to be eligible for funding: 

  • Are based in one of the following states: Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington. 

Priority Areas: Who We Fund 

We prioritize funding for LGTBQ+ groups and organizations that are: 

  1. Serving Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) and Trans and Gender Nonconforming folks (TGNC) and whose leadership* reflects these communities.  
    1. *We define leadership as: In positions with decision making power. This could mean that the majority of an organization’s staff leadership team (i.e. Directors/Executive Director) and/or the majority of its board members. We also look at participation among staff and participants.  
       
  2. Innovatively supporting communities when or where nobody else is, especially smaller, grassroots organizations and those who don’t have access to mainstream funding sources. 
    1. More specifically, this includes rural organizations with limited access to resources and funder support—whether from individual donors or lack of/limited philanthropic infrastructure within your area. 
    2. This also includes organizations and groups that are not necessarily LGBTQ+ focused, but are led by BIPOC—especially queer and trans BIPOC—who are leading inherently from an intersectional perspective. We understand that because of racism queer and trans folks of color may not have found space within the larger LGBTQ+ movement to do this work. As part of Pride Foundation’s racial equity work, we recognize the importance of expanding how LGBTQ+ advocacy and movement building looks in communities of color. 

Organizations must align with at least one of these groups to be considered for funding. 

Priority Issues: What We Fund  

We prioritize funding for LGTBQ+ groups and organizations that focus on: 

  1. Health and Wellness
    1. Organizations that focus on providing health services including HIV/AIDS prevention and support, mental health, accessibility and disability support, spiritual and tribal practices, gender-affirming care (GAC), etc. 
    2. We also consider organizations that focus on health education like sexual health, reproductive health, herbalism, etc.) 
    3. Organizations that provide support to individuals and communities well-being (i.e. housing services/support, food insecurity support, etc.) 
  2. Education

    1. Organizations that focus on gender and racial justice education and learning 
    2. Organizations that serve youth, including youth-led groups 
  3. Community Building

    1. Organizations that focus on building community, gatherings, cultural belonging, and a general safe space and support for TGNC BIPOC 
    2. Organizations that provide care and support to vulnerable populations including immigrants, folks formerly incarcerated, sex workers, and folks who are unhoused. 
    3. Organizations that are working to end discrimination and violence facing LGBTQ+ folks  

These definitions are not exhaustive and are meant as a guide/example. Organizations must align with at least one of these priority issue areas to be considered for funding. Organizations are not penalized for aligning with multiple issue areas as we know that these issues are interconnected. 

Our Grantees 

Learn more about the impact our grantees are making across the Northwest.  

Meet Our Grantees » 

Questions? 

Please don’t hesitate to contact Kaleigh Mency, Grants Program Officer, for questions relating to the program or Craig Williams, Programs Operations Manager, for technical questions regarding our application system or grant agreements.

Community Grants

The application is currently closed.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. Our new process has both a proactive grant model and an open application. Current grantees are automatically considered for a proactive 3-year grant. Organizations will be notified about the award before 2-year application opens.
  2. Our open application is available through Foundant. If the online/written application is not accessible for your organization, you can email kaleigh@pridefoundation.org to schedule a Phone Interview Application. Your organization must also meet all the basic general eligibility and our priority areas for a phone interview to ensure everyone’s time and labor is honored and respected.

Funding for our Community Grants program is a pool of resources that comes from our fundraising efforts each year. This includes both restricted and unrestricted donations from individuals, specific area of interest funds set up by donors (living and passed), and business and institutional partners who trust Pride Foundation to make decisions about awarding grants. Area of interest funds are set up to address specific issues and causes, and focus on funding organizations and groups who support people living with HIV/AIDS and organizations supporting LGBTQ+ youth, especially BIPOC youth, youth living in rural communities, and youth experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

Right now, we can only make grant awards to organizations who are a 501c3 or who are fiscally sponsored by a 501c3. We are working to develop a system that will allow us to make grants to groups who are not fiscally sponsored or have 501c3 status. Please reach out to us if you are in this situation so we can figure out if there are any options to consider in the meantime.

No stress! We’ve created a recommendation flow chart to help organizations determine whether they should apply. As much as we want to encourage everyone to apply, we also want to be mindful of everyone’s time and labor.

Feel free to check out a PDF version of our application to look at our questions before applying!

You can learn more about our evaluation process for Community Grants in our blog post.

All grants will be unrestricted, unless explicitly asked otherwise by the organization.

We anticipate the average grant award size being around $10,000/year.

Our Community Grants application will close on October 11, 2024, at 11:59pm PDT 

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